Bambusa flexuosa

Synonym: Bambusa scabriculma W. T. Lin, J. S. China Agric. Univ. 14 (1), 1993: 46.

Thai names: ไผ่สีสุก (phai si suk) (Bangkok); ไผ่ป่าพุ่ม (phai pa phum). — T. Smitinand, 2001 [#1003]; BKF [#1368].

English name: Lesser Thorny Bamboo.

Distribution: THAILAND: not native, possibly introduced and naturalized. — LAOS. — VIETNAM. — CHINA (South): Guang­dong, Hainan, on hills and along river banks.

Culm size: Height 6–7 (10) m, diameter 3.5–6 (7) cm.

Descriptions:

(1) "Habit: Perennial; caespitose. Rhizomes short; pachymorph. Culms erect; 200–1000 cm long; woody; with root thorns from the nodes. Culm-internodes terete; hollow; 5.5–7.5 cm long; distally glabrous. Lateral branches dendroid. Branch complement many. Leaves cauline. Leaf-sheaths striately veined; glabrous on surface, or hirsute; outer margin glabrous. Leaf-sheath oral hairs ciliate; deciduous. Ligule a ciliate membrane. Collar with external ligule. Leaf-blade base with a brief petiole-like connection to sheath. Leaf-blades lanceolate; 5–10 cm long; 12–14 mm wide. Leaf-blade venation indistinct; with 6–8 secondary veins. Leaf-blade surface glabrous. Leaf-blade margins ciliate. Leaf-blade apex acuminate. … [flowers and seeds described]." — Kew GrassBase, accessed 13 Aug. 2020 [#1335].

(2) "Culms 6–7 m, 3.5–6 cm in diam., basally flexuose, apically nodding; internodes 20–30 cm, sparsely stiffly brown strigose, with a ring of silky brown hairs below each node; wall thick. Branches to base, solitary at lower nodes, flexuose, densely interwoven, branchlets specialized into tough thorns, higher nodes with 3 to several branches. Culm sheaths tardily deciduous, leathery, prominently ribbed-striate when dry, sparsely stiffly dark brown strigose, apex concave with a triangular protuberance on each shoulder; auricles narrowly filiform or absent; ligule 4–5 mm, dentate or laciniate, fimbriate; blade erect or recurved, ovate-lanceolate to lanceolate, base ca. 1/2 as wide as sheath apex. Leaf blade narrowly lanceolate to lanceolate, 7–11 × 1.2–1.6 cm, both surfaces glabrous. … [flowers described]." — Flora of China, accessed 13 Aug. 2020 [#1303].

Images: Line drawing in Flora of China [#1303]. Photos in AsianFlora (leaves) [#1332].

Characteristics: A thorny bamboo of low height; branching from the basal culm up, forming an impenetrable thicket.

Uses: Plants for protective hedges.